User:The Man in Question/WIP

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Animals and plants in A Series of Unfortunate Events

• Crystal Gazing/Scrying
• V.F.D.
• Count Olaf's associates (Fire Starters)
• Animals in A Series of Unfortunate Events
• Moneta
• Mandrake
• Lemony Snicket

Contents 1 V.F.D. animals 1.1 Crows ∆ 1.2 Eagles 1.2.1 In the books 1.2.2 Description 1.3 Lions ∆ 1.4 Reptiles ∆ 1.4.1 Incredibly Deadly Viper ∆ 1.4.1.1 In the books 1.4.1.2 Description 1.4.2 Mamba du Mal ∆ 1.4.2.1 In the books 1.4.2.2 Description 1.4.3 Other ∆ 1.5 Crickets ∆ 1.6 Bats ∆ 1.7 Donkeys ∆ 1.8 Salmon 2 V.F.D. plants and fungi 2.1 Horseradish ∆ 2.2 Sour apples ∆ 2.2.1 In the books 2.2.2 Description 2.3 Medusoid Mycelium ∆ 2.3.1 In the books 2.3.2 Description 2.4 Green lumber ∆ 2.5 Nevermore Tree ∆ 3 Other plants, animals, and fungi 3.1 Lachrymose leeches 3.1.1 In the books 3.1.2 Description 3.2 Snow gnats ∆ 3.2.1 In the books 3.2.2 Description 3.3 Other ∆ 4 Sources 5 Reference

[edit] V.F.D. animals

According to the woman with hair but no beard, the crows, eagles, lions, and reptiles are the main animals of V.F.D.^[1]

[edit] Crows ∆

The Vile Village | The Slippery Slope | The Penultimate Peril

The carrier crows, often referred to as the V.F.D. crows (because they are found in the Village of Fowl Devotees, not because of their affiliation with V.F.D.)

[edit] Eagles

[[Image:VFDEagle.jpg|thumb|left|100px|V.F.D. eagles circling the summit of Mt. Fraught at the summons of the two judges of the High Court.]]

The Mortmain Mountain eagles are a fictional variety (and perhaps subspecies) of bald eagle found in the Mortmain Mountains and owned by the firestarting side of V.F.D. They appear primarily in The Slippery Slope, though they are mentioned as early on as The Wide Window.

[edit] In the books

Approximately twenty years^[2] before the series takes place, while hiking up to the summit of Mt. Fraught with Lemony Snicket and Jerome Squalor (among others), Beatrice Baudelaire was snatched by one of the Mortmain Mountain eagles and carried away to its eyrie^[2][3], almost certainly on the orders of the firestarting side of V.F.D. The result of this encounter is unknown, except that Beatrice apparently escaped.

In The Slippery Slope, the eagles were used by the two judges of the High Court to kidnap the Snow Scouts as part of V.F.D.'s child recruiting program, with intentions to burn down the children's houses, murder their families, and embezzle their inheritences.

While the children were put to work operating Count Olaf's stolen submarine (rechristened Carmelita), the eagles were sent to attack Duncan and Isadora Quagmire and Hector in their self-sustaining hot air mobile home.

With the help of Quigley Quagmire, the eagles were secured in a large net^[4]. However, while Kit Snicket, Cpt. Widdershins, Fernald, and Fiona navigated the Queequeg toward the self-sustaining hot air mobile home, the eagles tore open the net. When the Queequeg arrived, the aerostatic envelopes had been torn by the eagles, and the airship crashed in the submarine, capsizing its crew. Kit Snicket escaped with the incredibly deadly viper on a raft of jetsam, but Quigley, Isadora, Duncan, Fiona, Fernald, Hector, and Cpt. Widdershins all disappeared into the Great Unknown.^[5]

Quigley feared that the eagles would die out because of the lack of stricken salmon^[6] (see below), but according to Snicket, the eagles survived and "rebuilt their nests" (which had apparently been destroyed in the burning of the V.F.D. headquarters)^[7].

[edit] Description

The Mortmain Mountain eagle is a predatory raptor, preying on the stricken salmon. Snicket describes the variety as enormous in The Wind Window^[3], though they are never given this description again (they are, however, shown to have prodigious strength). He also hints that they build their eyries from discarded trash, since Snicket writes:

"Even the litter that was thrown out the window of Olaf's car…was picked up off the road long before my work began. The missing litter is a good sign, as it indicates that certain animals of the Mortmain Mountains have returned to their posts and are rebuilding their nests."^[7]

Snicket also makes it clear that they are domesticable, since the two judges trained them to obey whistle blows and (apparently) the cry of "mush" through fear of retribution^[8][9].

[edit] Lions ∆

The Carnivorous Carnival | The Slippery Slope

The V.F.D. lions or volunteer feline detectives

gastromancy (crystal gazing)

p. 108 (CC), Olaf gives "Madame Lulu" the lions, to Esmé's dismay (he gives them so that Olivia's carnival will be more successful and she will be able to devote more time to her gastromancy).

"Those lions used to be noble creatures. A friend of mine trained them to smell smoke, which was very helpful in our work. But now Count Olaf [has them]." (Olivia Caliban, p. 158 CC)

Sound asleep, the lions did not look particularly ferocious. Some of their manes were all tangled, as if no one had brushed them for a long time, and sometimes one of their legs twitched, as if they were dreaming of better days…and most of the lions were very, very thin, as if they had not eaten a good meal in quite some time. (p. 195, CC)

"They look lonely. Maybe they're orphans, too." (Klaus Baudelaire, p. 196, CC)

"Edasurc," Sunny said, which meant something like, "Maybe someday we can rescue these lions." (p. 196, CC)

I have gazed into the pit dug by Count Olaf and his henchmen and seen all the burnt bones lying in a heap. (p. 205, CC)

Many of the tents and caravans were already on fire…and in the distance the siblings could hear the panicked roars of the lions, who were still trapped in the pit. (p. 271, CC)

violence and sloppy eating; the Lion Show

"Years ago, apparently these mountains were crawling with [lions]. The [lions] were so intelligent that they were trained as [detectives]." (Bruce, p. 79SS, bears/soldiers)

"Lions lived in these caves…the lions were detectives—volunteer feline detectives."

[edit] Reptiles ∆

The Reptile Room | The End | The Unauthorized Autobiography

trained reptiles

In The Reptile Room, Dr. Montgomery Montgomery

"A long time ago, I tricked you out of a reptile collection that I needed for my own use." (Count Olaf, p. 313, SS)

"[We have] all the reptiles except one—" (Count Olaf, p. 295)

[edit] Incredibly Deadly Viper ∆

[edit] In the books

[edit] Description

[edit] Mamba du Mal ∆

[edit] In the books

[edit] Description

[edit] Other ∆

[edit] Crickets ∆

The Unauthorized Autobiography

beautiful hinterlands sunset (coming out of Olaf's trunk.)

The children could hear nothing but the chirping of the evening crickets and the faint barking of a dog. (p. 15, CC)

Snicket quotes the crickets from Chapter XV of Charlotte's Web:

The crickets sang in the grasses. They sang the song of summer’s ending, a sad, monotonous song. "Summer is over and gone," they sang. "Over and gone, over and gone. Summer is dying, dying."

The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last forever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year — the days when summer is changing into fall — the crickets spread the rumor of sadness and change.

[edit] Bats ∆

The Beatrice Letters

The V.F.D. has trained bats which carry messages. Unfortunately, they are not very good at it.^[10]

In The Beatrice Letters

baticeer butterfly/bat

[edit] Donkeys ∆

In The Carnivorous Carnival, Lemony Snicket and the older Baudelaires mention the V.F.D. donkeys (or the vineyards's famous donkeys) in the Vineyard of Fragrant Grapes. The

p. 203

"This vineyard was famoys for having grapes that smelled delicious, and it was very pleasan to picnic in the fields, while the fragrance drifted in the ar and the vfds, who helped carry bushels of grape at haresttime, slept in the shade of the grapevines"

busy station naot far from platryville

[edit] Salmon

Stricken salmon^[11] are a fictional species or subspecies of salmon found in Stricken Stream and Sontag Shore^[12]. Like all salmonids, stricken salmon parr feed on insects — in particular, snow gnats^[6]. Though not playing a significant role in the books, they appear in The Slippery Slope and are discussed in The Ersatz Elevator and The Grim Grotto.

After the V.F.D. schism^[13], Anwhistle Aquatics and its founder, ichnologist Gregor Anwhistle, lead a program with the help of Cpt. Widdershins, Fernald, and the Snickets (among other volunteers) called Voluntary Fish Domestication^[13], in which a fleet of stricken salmon was trained over the course of four years to swim upstream to locate wildfires.

When the waiters of Café Salmonella (on the firestarting side of the schism)^[13] tried to appropriate the salmon for their café, the Snickets engaged in a knife fight against them, later dubbed the Snicket Snickersnee. However, the waiters won and Café Salmonella processed V.F.D.'s salmon into cuisine as diverse as salmon ravioli, salmon butter sauce, and salmon pie^[14].

Almost a month before the Baudelaire children arrived in the Mortmain Mountains^[15], the two judges of the high court burned down V.F.D.'s headquarters in the Valley of Four Drafts. The ashes from the mammoth headquarters' destruction polluted Stricken Stream and harmed the stricken salmon. In addition, the snow gnats were driven from the area by the fires' smoke, leading Quigley Quagmire to fear that the stricken salmon would die out. According to Snicket, however, this was not the case (see under Eagles above).

There is also some evidence to suggest that the stricken salmon grew in opposition to V.F.D., since Cpt. Widdershins says, "Aye! The Submarine Q and Its Crew of Two is not in the best of shape, I'm afraid! Aye! We've been attacked by…angry salmon!"^[16]

[edit] V.F.D. plants and fungi

[edit] Horseradish ∆

The Reptile Room | The Grim Grotto | The End | The Unauthorized Autobiography

p. 1, RR

"Lousy Lane…encircles a horseradish factory, so the entire area smells bitter and strong."

Opportune Odors Horseradish Factory^[17]

[edit] Sour apples ∆

p. 1, RR

"Lousy Lane runs through fields…in which a handful of scraggly trees produce apples so sour that one has only to look at them to feel ill."

[edit] In the books

[edit] Description

[edit] Medusoid Mycelium ∆

The Bad Beginning | The Grim Grotto | The Penultimate Peril | The End

In Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Medusoid Mycelium is a deadly mushroom that grows in the Gorgonian Grotto, serving as major plot devices in the books The Grim Grotto and The End.

The following is a passage from Mushroom Minutiae (a fictional book of mushroom science quoted in The Grim Grotto):

"The Grim Grotto, located in propinquity to Anwhistle Aquatics, has appropriately wraithlike nomenclature, with roots in Grecian mythology, as this conical cavern is fecund with what is perhaps the bugaboo of the entire mycological pantheon. The Medusoid Mycelium has a unique conducive strategy of waxing and waning: first a brief dormant cycle in which the mycelium is nearly invisible, and then a precipitated flowering into speckled stalks and caps of such intense venom that it is fortunate the grotto serves as quarantine. As the poet says,

A single spore has such grim power

That you may die within the hour.

Is dilution simple? But of course!

Just one small dose of root of horse."

Kit Snicket writes a letter making references to both the fungus and Opportune Odors Horseradish Factory:

"The poisonous fungus you insist on cultivating in the grotto will bring grim consequences for all of us. Our factory at Lousy Lane can provide some dilution of the mycelium's destructive respiratory capabilities."

[edit] In the books

In Book the Eleventh (The Grim Grotto), it plays a major role when Sunny gets infected while searching, with the other siblings and Fiona, for the sugar bowl in the Gorgonian Grotto. Luckily she survives, as her siblings give her a dose of the antidote, wasabi (Japanese horseradish). At the end of the book, however, Count Olaf gets hold of a sample of the fungus, and in The Penultimate Peril he attempts to infect all the guests of the Hotel Denouement with this newfound weapon. The plan is foiled, and Count Olaf escapes with the mushrooms, along with Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire. Also, an interesting point to make is that Dewey Denouement told Olaf that he "would not dare" unleash the Medusoid Mycelium because Dewey had the sugar bowl.

When Olaf forces the orphans to sail away from the hotel, he keeps the mushrooms in a sealed diving helmet, threatening to release the Mycelium and poison them all if the children refuse to row the boat.

In The End, Count Olaf disguises himself as a pregnant Kit Snicket and uses the helmet containing the Medusoid Mycelium as his false baby. When Ishmael shoots him in the stomach with the harpoon gun, the fungus is once again released. In fact, the entire island's population, besides Ishmael, is infected with the Medusoid Mycelium, but by the time the Baudelaires returned with the curative apples hybridized with horseradish, everyone had boarded the outrigger canoe and refused to listen to the children telling them to take the cure. The Baudelaires and Count Olaf were cured by eating a horseradish-apple hybrid, but the poison fungus claimed the life of Kit Snicket who couldn't eat the fruit due to its harmful effect on pregnant women's unborn children. It is not known if the other islanders survived, as Ishmael refused to allow the curative apples onto the departing outrigger (though it is clear that Ishmael himself had recently eaten an apple to cure himself). It is suggested in the book that Ink the Incredibly Deadly Viper may have succeeded in getting one curing apple to the departing islanders without Ishmael noticing, to tide them over until they can cure themselves properly. However, even if this were the case, it may be just as likely that they all died at sea. Their ultimate fates are unknown.

[edit] Description

As can be deduced from the passage above, the Medusoid Mycelium is a mushroom that resides in the Gorgonian Grotto and has a unique habit of shrinking and disappearing underground, then sprouting silently and very quickly back up to full size again. The mushroom (like most mushrooms) has an umbrella-shaped pileus, and both the pileus and the stipe are dark gray, randomly speckled with black spots. It grows thickly in the throat, constricting the air-passage and choking the victim. The only cure for this inflation is horseradish (or a substitute like wasabi), which the V.F.D. once processed in the Opportune Odors Horseradish Factory on Lousy Lane. Although it is referred to as a mushroom, it should actually be called a toadstool because of its poisons which render it inedible, though the poison may be removed by boiling as is done with many other 'mushrooms'. Until the events at the end of The Grim Grotto, it had been safely quarantined in the Gorgonian Grotto, but a sample was taken from the grotto and kept by Count Olaf as a biological weapon which, if opened, could spread the deadly fungus far and wide. It is stated by Fiona that the fungus can actually be the source of some marvelous remedies.

For Book the Eleventh, a song entitled "A Million Mushrooms" was recorded by The Gothic Archies for the audiobook version of the book. According to Lemony Snicket, this song describes the Medusoid Mycelium

The song lyrics go as follows:

A million mushrooms fill the field
Where marchers' bodies lately fell,
For marchers marching heavy-heeled
Release more spores to march as well.

Across the twilit shadow ground
And over long-bewildered farms,
Through palaces where not a sound
Is heard though there should be alarms.

But winter comes and only ice
Is crushed beneath the marching feet.
In all the land where once was rice
There now is nothing fit to eat.

...Except mushrooms, which nourish not
The body, nourish not the mind,
And often poison; eating rot
The marchers march insane and blind.

[edit] Green lumber ∆

The Miserable Mill | The Unauthorized Autobiography

(finite forest)

[edit] Nevermore Tree ∆

In the poem The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator mourns over his lost love Lenore, similar to Snicket's own tangled history with Beatrice, though unlike Snicket the narrator of The Raven is driven to madness by his sorrow.

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore —
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
           Of 'Never — nevermore'."

[edit] Other plants, animals, and fungi

[edit] Lachrymose leeches

Lachrymose leeches are a fictional species of leech that inhabit the central part of Lake Lachrymose^[18]. Though playing a significant part in The Wide Window, they are also mentioned in several other books in the series, including The Reptile Room and The Beatrice Letters.

[edit] In the books

Ike Anwhistle, brother of Gregor Anwhistle, was eaten alive by the Lachrymose leeches shortly before the Baudelaires' arrival to the city of Lake Lachrymose^[19], leaving the orphans' third guardian, Josephine Anwhistle, a widow. During their residence with Josephine, Count Olaf (disguised as Capt. Julio Sham) claimed his leg was eaten off by Lachrymose leeches (this, however, was part of his ruse to hide his ankle tattoo and curry Josephine's sympathy). In the end, Josephine herself was eaten alive by the Lachrymose leeches^[20].

[edit] Description

The Lachrymose leech is a sightless, anthropophagous leech that travels in social groups and gregariously attacks its larger prey. It is predatory (rather than hemophagic, or "blood-sucking"), generally preying on small fish^[21]. The leech's body is made up of roughly sixty annuluses, is of a lightish color^[22], and has two sets of vela (veil-like frills) along its midsection whose purpose is unspecified. The body is also slightly longer than a human finger, though whether this is at its fully extended state or not is likewise unspecified^[23].

The Lachrymose leech feeds on humans who have eaten within an hour of entering their territory. According to Aunt Josephine, they can "smell even the smallest bit of food from far, far away"^[21]. This corresponds with chemoreception (olfactory stimulus triggered by certain food chemicals), a trait found in actual species of leech.

The Lachrymose leech is described as having "six rows of very sharp teeth,"^[21] which indicates that it is probably of the order Gnathobdellae, whose species have several jaws of miniscule, sharp teeth (this order includes the medicinal leech). Also like the medicinal leech, the Lachrymose leech has an anterior sucker (that is, only one mouth).

[edit] Snow gnats ∆

violent frozen dragonflies (p. 81, SS)

My brother asked [what the cloud of gnats was] once, and had nightmares about it for weeks. An associate of mine asked the question, and found himself falling through the air before he could hear the answer. It is a l I asked once, a very long time ago and in a very timid voice, and a woman replied by quickly putting a motorcycle helmet on her head and wrapping her body in a red silk cape. (p. 36-37, SS)

A swarm of well-organized [snow gnats are, p. 39], ill-tempered insects known as snow gnats, who live in cold mountain areas and enjoy stinging people for no reason whatsoever. (p. 37)

^a book on mountainous insect life. circular, tornado formation > p. 39 white, p. 38 arrow formation, p. 37 formations wind-based, p. 39 mildly poisonous, a lot can make on ill, p. 39 — aggressive, unprovoked — fire drives them away, "even the smell of smoke can keep a whole swarm at bay" (p. 42)

Snow gnats live in cold mountain areas and have been known to group themselves into well-defined shapes.

"Without snow gnats, the salmon of the Stricken Stream will go hungry. They feed on snow gnats. And without salmon, the Mortmain Mountain eagles will go hungry. The destruction of V.F.D. headquarters has caused even more damage than I thought." (Quigley Quagmire, p. 270-271, SS)

[edit] In the books

[edit] Description

[edit] Other ∆

Naturaly over the course of fifteen books other animals, plants, and fungi are bound to appear. In The Austere Academy, terrestrial crabs and a dripping tan fungus plague the Baudelaire children in the Orphans' Shack. In The Bad Beginning and The Grim Grotto, the Royal Gardens (and their destruction by arson) are noted. In The Ersatz Elevator, Dark Avenue is lined with enormous trees — that is, until they are all cut down because they are no longer "in". Swans, potatoes, marmosets, manitees, kudzu, butterflies, reptilian topiary, and yaks are just a few of the colorful species to be found on the series' pages.

[edit] Sources

[edit] Reference

• Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm (2003). The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-55-338216-0. 
• Hudson, W.H. (1989). Green Mansions: a Romance of the Tropical Forest. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-48-625993-5. 
• Snicket, Lemony (1999). The Bad Beginning. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-440766-7. 
• Snicket, Lemony (1999). The Reptile Room. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-440767-5. 
• Snicket, Lemony (2000). The Wide Window. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-440768-3. 
• Snicket, Lemony (2000). The Miserable Mill. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-440769-1. 
• Snicket, Lemony (2000). The Austere Academy. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-440863-9. 
• Snicket, Lemony (2001). The Ersatz Elevator. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-440864-7. 
• Snicket, Lemony (2001). The Vile Village. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-440865-5. 
• Snicket, Lemony (2002). The Carnivorous Carnival. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-441012-9. 
• Snicket, Lemony (2002). Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-000719-2. 
• Snicket, Lemony (2003). The Slippery Slope. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-441013-7. 
• Snicket, Lemony (2004). The Grim Grotto. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-441014-5. 
• Snicket, Lemony (2005). The Penultimate Peril. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-441015-3. 
• Snicket, Lemony (2006). The Beatrice Letters. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-058658-3. 
• Snicket, Lemony (2006). The End. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-441016-1. 
• Snicket, Lemony (2007). The Reptile Room: or, Murder!. New York: HarperTrophy. ISBN 0-06-114631-5. 
• White, E.B. (2001). Charlotte's Web. London: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-441093-5. 
• "The Million Mushrooms" lyrics